The week of October 18

This week the grade 3 students discovered that there are many
silent letters in reading. The letter K is silent when with the letter n (know). The
letter b is silent when with the letter m (thumb). W can say not a sound
when it is with h (whose). Silent letters in words can be a real challenge.
The students have the opportunity to play "Trick or Treat" using the silent letter
words to practice their reading. Have fun!


The week of October 25jack-o-lantern.jpg

Picking Apples and Pumpkins is a book the students will be very interested in after their fun trip to the apple orchard last week! Using their prior knowledge, students will be asked to predict the many words and activities they might read in this book. It is sure to be a favorite!

To celebrate Halloween, your child will be reading poems about Monsters, acting in a 'sickening' manner, learning more about spiders, all while practicing the skill of fluency. Students should sound like they are talking when achieving fluency. Re-reading is a great way to increase your child's skill in this area.

A punctuation sheet will come home this week giving clear directions on how to "read" each punctuation sign. As your child is reading more complex and longer stories, this skill becomes increasingly important. It effects not only comprehension, but fluency and phrasing. When listening to your child read, please take the time to reinforce these "reading signals".

The game POP! will allow your child to practice breaking apart 3 syllable words as well as the soft c and soft g sound. I hope you and your child enjoy this game!

There will be no Empowering Learners Program on Friday as I am away at a meeting. This will give your child the opportunity to partake in all the Halloween learning activities taking place in the classroom. Have a safe and happy Halloween.

We have only 2 days left next week in the Empowering Learners Program.